


How to Fall in Love with a Lawyer in Seven Days

by writingfromdarkplaces



Series: Fleet Legal Advocate Corps Alternate Universe [4]
Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Flashbacks, Implied Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-09 08:25:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7794574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingfromdarkplaces/pseuds/writingfromdarkplaces
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kara thinks she needs a way to get a certain uptight Fleet lawyer out of her system. Taking leave and going to confront him wasn't her brightest idea, but she figures it has fringe benefits.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day One

**Author's Note:**

> So I had this depressing bit of unpleasantness that I did to work out some... issues. I decided I needed something fluffier, and this seemed the less monstrous of two evils (as the other one was another full AU to create.) I went with it, since I did figure that it would help round out this universe to understand how Kara managed to have the feelings she displays in the parts dealing with Lee's visit to _Galactica._
> 
> I am going to put this in before the others, even though they were posted first, just because it is earlier in the timeline.

* * *

“Frak.”

“Problem, God?” one of her nuggets asked, and she glared at him, forcing him into silence with a look. At least that still worked. 

Somehow nothing else did. She didn't know what the hell had gone wrong. She should be angry—she was—and she wasn't going to _stop_ being angry, not when Lee had backed down and let them claim her pilots had caused that crash when she knew they hadn't. She should hate him for that alone, but she didn't. She kept expecting a phone call or a sudden appearance with more questions or another investigation, any excuse there was to talk to her or see her.

He hadn't done it.

She considered calling him, but she didn't.

She took her frustrations out on Helo, but their sparring wasn't enough to rid her of the anger or anything else. She had tried three times to pick up someone new at the bars around the base, but none of them came close enough to Apollo, even when she was so drunk she couldn't hardly see straight. She danced, she drank, and she tried but he was always there, keeping her from getting past it.

Her frakking sheets still smelled like him, and she swore that scent lingered even after she'd done laundry just to wash it away. She didn't know what to do. She was going out of her frakking mind, and it was showing itself in her work.

She forgot her sims codes—that had never happened before—she left behind lesson plans—that did, often—and she broke her favorite mug, dropping it in distraction when she heard the name Adama. This wasn't like her.

This was frakked up. She didn't get like this over guys. Over anyone. She didn't need them, didn't want them.

Except she _did_ want Lee. She should have been too pissed at him to care, but she wasn't. She didn't understand, but she frakking hated it. She needed to get him out of her system for good. Maybe it was because she was mad at him. Maybe if she wasn't pissed, she'd let it go.

She went back to the office, checking the calender to see what the other instructors' schedules were like. She knew she had leave—she never used hers—so that wasn't an issue. Covering her classes was, but she thought she could get Glamis to cover most of it, especially if they played triad. He had a lousy bluff, and he drank too much. He'd be easy even if she couldn't talk him into it without the game.

She bit her lip. This was crazy. Since when did she do this kind of thing? She wasn't that kind of person. She didn't need to see Lee Adama.

She didn't care how good sex had been between them. He wasn't worth this. No man was.

 _“All men do is leave you,”_ her mother had said. _“Don't get any ideas that they'll care about you. All they want is a frak and they're done. No one wants more than that from anyone, definitely not from you. No one will ever care about you.”_

She shook it off, walking away from the calendar. Forget it. She wasn't going anywhere. She didn't need this. She didn't need him.

_“What are you doing?” Kara asked, aware of his hand on her hip and his lips moving even if she couldn't hear his voice, so low were the words under his breath. “I do tell the nuggets to call me God, but you're not a nugget. You don't have to pray.”_

_“Atheist,” he said, then grimaced and moved his fingers. “Or at least agnostic. You made me lose count.”_

_She frowned. “Your survival was called a miracle and you doubt the gods?”_

_“The miracle would have been not crashing in the first place,” he disagreed and then added, “Forty-seven.”_

_“What?”_

_“Forty-seven freckles,” he answered, touching a finger to one of them and giving her a slight smile that had her body reacting like it was on fire._

_“You counted them?” Kara couldn't believe that. Why would anyone want to, especially one of them? They knew this was just a fling. He was going as soon as his investigation was done, and while she'd been tempted to do stuff with his scars, that was for people who played at relationships, not them. “Why the frak would you do that?”_

_“So I can remember later,” he answered, and she was still confused but too aroused to care, so she pulled him close and kissed him, distracting them both._

Kara leaned against the wall and sighed. She wasn't doing this. She swore she wasn't. Still, she had to do something.

She needed to fly. She could forget all about him when she was in the cockpit, right where she belonged. And where he didn't.

* * *

She got out of her Viper, standing on shaky legs and wondering if that was what Babydoll and Katman had felt before they died. Her nuggets hadn't stood a chance—it had taken every bit of her skill not to end up in pieces or exploding on impact when the guidance system cut out, and she knew without a frakking doubt that if Apollo had gone through anything like that, it was his skill that saw him setting down even close to alive, not what caused the crash.

He should be dead.

So should she.

She shuddered.

* * *

Kara knew she was being stupid, but the whole near death thing tipped the scales, and she left on the first transport out with only a go bag to her name and her CO's grudging agreement that yes, Glamis could handle her class load and she had a right to get thoroughly trashed and be off duty for a while after that frakking nightmare of a landing.

She shook it off again, preparing herself. She just needed to see if he was still alive. If he told her to leave, she'd go, and she did not want him thinking for a minute this was about him.

She stopped in the doorway, taking in the sight of him hard at work. She'd never thought anyone could make doing paperwork seem sexy, but Lee's way of frowning over it was strangely appealing, as was the lip biting he did when he was thinking or his pen chewing. Gods. She would like to be that pen. This was frakking ridiculous.

“I think I need to hire a lawyer. Seems I may have decked a fellow officer and he says he's going to press charges.”

He stiffened but didn't look at her, much to her disappointment. “That's not how it works, Lieutenant. You would be assigned representation if you were in actual need of it. That comes down from command, and as it is, I am in the middle of a trial and unavailable for the foreseeable future, even _if_ you had a case.”

“No, I'd have to insist on getting you,” she said, since if she was in trouble, she wouldn't take any other lawyer for her case. She didn't care how busy he was or who was supposed to assign him. “I wouldn't let anyone else represent me. I need the one that's got a stick up his ass but is easy on the eyes. And, I'm told, the best at what he frakking does.”

“What are you doing here, Thrace?”

She thought he was trying to sound annoyed, but it didn't work. She didn't buy it. “I told you.”

“And you're lying,” he said, playing at the game like an expert. She sat down on the corner of his desk, shrugging as she picked up his paperweight. A rock. He had some kind of taste, didn't he? “What do you want?”

She laughed, setting down his rock. “What do you _think_ I want, Captain?”

“A bottle of the Colonies' best ambrosia, a box of illegal cigars, and a custom triad deck.”

“Not bad,” she said, since he was right about all but one of those and still missing the point. She circled his desk, needing to get close to him. “I'll let you pick which one of those you get me as a present but I—”

“No one said I was getting you any presents. I may know what you like, but that does not mean I'm interested in gifting them to you. We were quite clear the last time we spoke.”

“Actually, we weren't,” she disagreed. She didn't think that what they'd said counted as a discussion. She stood to his chair, giving his leg a nudge as she reminded him, “You were all rules and regulations and inflated ego, and you did what you said you were going to do, closed the investigation and left, and I let you do it—”

“You _let_ me do it?” He snorted, and she smiled because she'd expected that reaction from him. “I don't think so, Starbuck. I chose to go, and right about now, I'm also choosing to have you escorted out of my office and—”

She cut him off with a kiss, falling easily into his lap as soon as she'd started it. Gods, she was weak to him but what he did to her was sinful and perfect. She didn't know a woman alive who'd resist that, who could stay strong and avoid melting just by his looks, but lords, his _tongue._ She had missed that, missed every bit of this, and she hated admitting it, but it was true.

She pulled back to let them breathe, knowing she needed a second before starting in again.

“Frak.”

“Well,” she said with a laugh, “I'm sure we'll get there.”

He took her hands, keeping them away from the buttons she'd just been about to target. “No, we won't. We are not doing this again. Last time was a mistake, but it's not one that has to be made twice.”

“More like for the sixth or seventh time, depending on what you're counting,” she corrected, since that was how many rounds they'd actually gone, and if he got technical about orgasms, it would be even different. She saw him trying not to laugh, wondering if he was thinking the same thing. “See? You don't want to stop me, not really. You missed me.”

“I did not.”

“Now you're the one that's lying. Sure, you never call, you never write, but you _definitely_ missed me,” she said, eying his lap with a grin. “I've got proof.”

He shook his head, embarrassed. “You need to leave.”

Oh, she was not leaving. She had thought that she just wanted to see him, but that wasn't enough, not after the kiss. She wanted to finish what they'd started and start all over again. “I came for legal advice, remember? And I don't think you're going anywhere right now, so why don't you give me some?”

“I'm supposed to be in court.”

“Oh, poor baby,” she said, trying not to laugh and not managing it, “I could kiss it better...”

“Frak you,” he said, but he was laughing with her a second later. She leaned back into him, pleased when he didn't stop her. She kissed along his jaw and over to his ear. She wanted to frak, couldn't deny that, but that had to wait.

“My guidance system cut out yesterday in the middle of a training exercise,” she told him. “Lee, we have to do something before this kills every pilot in the fleet.”

He tensed, forcing her up and off of him. “We can't do this here.”

“Oh, please, if you are embarrassed by the thought of someone seeing us, just lock the door,” she said, rolling her eyes, but his look told her it wasn't about that. Or not just that. He meant talking about the guidance system, didn't he?

“I have to prepare for court, and since you don't have a—”

“A hotel,” she said, watching him frown at her. “I don't. I didn't book one. I figured I needed legal advice right away and that you'd be stubborn about it, so I came right here. The idea was to seduce you into agreeing. Didn't need a room for that, or so I thought.”

He groaned. “Look, we can't—if I help you find a place to stay for the night, will you actually stay there?”

She smiled at him. “How about you convince me on the way?”

* * *

“I'd say you were compensating for something, driving this around, but you're not,” Starbuck teased as she neared his car, and Lee once again regretted being weak enough to give into the temptation she presented. She was dangerous, he knew that, but somehow he still gave in, still wanted her. He wouldn't claim she was the only thing he thought about, though she had entered his thoughts with a dismaying amount of repetition.

“I could call you a cab.”

“Don't you dare,” she said, running her hand over the fender. “I want to ride in this. Well, I want to drive it. Or I want to ride _you_ in it. Any of them will do.”

He shook his head, checking his watch. “I don't have long for lunch. We should get you to your hotel and settled so that I can finish what I need to do. I assume you're on the next flight out.”

“Wrong,” she said, looking up at him with a smirk. “I don't intend to leave until I've gotten what I came for.”

Lee didn't bother asking what that was. She'd only turn it into innuendo. He didn't need to hear more of it. Her showing up here was a disaster in the making, and he wanted to rush her off as soon as he could, but there was a part of him that wanted her to stay for a lot longer than a day, that would have gladly shut that door and given her what she wanted, but he knew he couldn't do this, not if she wanted to pursue the guidance system.

That couldn't happen.

She must be a test, and he'd forgotten that, lost his head in a moment of lust and weakness. He knew they wanted to be sure he'd do what they wanted, and she had to be a part of it. He knew that. This couldn't go any further.

“Did you have a place in mind you'd like to stay?” Lee asked as he unlocked the door for her, opening it.

She smirked, stepping up to kiss him. “What a gentleman.”

He shook his head. She was insane. “We should go.”

She nodded, sitting down. He closed the door behind her, crossing over to the other side. Getting in, he sat down and pulled on his seatbelt. She rolled her eyes, and he ignored her as he started the engine. “You didn't answer my question.”

“About where to stay? I thought that was obvious,” she said, smirking again. “I want to stay with you.”

Lee's grip tightened on the wheel. “Are you kidding?”

“Why would I?” She shook her head. “Sometimes I think you actually believe you have no appeal to anyone, which I don't understand because I know that's not true. I'm not the only one who was looking just on our way out to the car—and don't say that was about me. I look like a mess. I _am_ a mess. Almost crashing and then taking the first transport out does that to you. You, though? You're pristine and perfect, and I want to make you a mess.”

“You can't. I already said this wasn't happening.”

“Apollo,” she said, and he tried not to grimace. “You can't ignore it. We both know that that system is faulty. And we both want to frak. That won't go away.”

He snorted. “There are things like cold showers, you know.”

* * *

He parked the car in front of a building in a nicer part of town than she'd ever visited, and Kara almost winced when she looked up at it. She knew she'd never afford this place, or anyone else remotely close to it. He'd gone the wrong direction, and she was going to have to set him straight on that little detail.

She looked over at him. “You know, if you're planning on dumping me in a hotel, you picked the wrong one. This side of town is way out of my price range, and I won't be left where I can't afford it. To use your words—it's not happening.”

He took the keys out of the ignition and undid one from the ring. Holding it out to her, he said, “This will get you into the penthouse. Don't worry about the security at the front. They'll let you by if you show them that.”

She eyed him warily. “And how exactly do you have access to a penthouse?”

“Since I decided I frakking hated having neighbors,” he said, giving her a tight smile. “The money was left to me by my grandfather. He was also a lawyer, though I'm not entirely sure it wasn't from the Ha'la'tha.”

She stared at him. “You're not serious. Your grandfather wasn't—”

“Tauron? Oh, yes, he was. My father is half, and I'm a quarter,” Lee said, giving her a smile, and she figured that thing qualified as a frakking weapon. “Go on. I have to get back to work.”

“Frak that. I'm not going in there without you. I don't believe they'll let me in, even with your key, and I'm not in the mood to let you prank me, Adama.”

“I don't play pranks. Just go. They will let you in.”

“How many girls have you done this with?” Kara demanded. He frowned. “Well, if they're willing to accept random women coming and going into your apartment, they must be used to it, right? So you must have had plenty of them up there.”

“Not one, actually,” he said, and she gave him a look, but he just shrugged. “There was no point. Just go. I have things to do, and I already had lunch, so—”

She grabbed hold of him, yanking him into a kiss. When she finally let him go, she smiled at him. “Come up for dessert, then.”


	2. Day Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lee has court and plenty of misgivings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured on this story being light and fluffy, with perhaps too much cuteness.
> 
> I forgot who these characters were, I suppose, because the angst just had to come in at the end.

* * *

“Hmm. It cannot possibly be morning already.”

Lee snorted, not sure why she was in denial about it. The light was coming in full force through the glass that served as his ceiling, and it had been bright for hours already. He tended to catch the sunrise, and he never needed an alarm here.

“It is,” he said, rolling over onto his side. He needed to shower and dress, and he didn't have time for breakfast now, not that he usually had much more than coffee.

She reached out and caught his arm. “Where do you think you're going?”

“The shower,” he answered, not looking back at her. He should never have let her talk him into coming up to the apartment with her. He'd known it was a bad idea before he even pulled up next to the building, but she'd been stubborn about going up without him, and he'd caved, thinking he'd actually go back to work.

Gods, he was an idiot. He should know better than to think he could resist Kara Thrace. Something about her threw out all reason and thought and sense. He had her pegged as trouble from the first time they met, but he hadn't stopped her in that bar, and he didn't know that he'd stop her now, even if he was well aware that he had to been in court in an hour.

“No, you're not.”

“Yes, I am. I have court,” he said, pulling her hand off of him and rising from the bed. “Yesterday was prep, and that I can almost excuse missing, but this is different. If I don't show up, Corporal Danner will end up in prison for life or worse.”

“You're just saying that,” she muttered, crawling across the bed after him. “How can you even think about leaving? I mean, I thought the first time was intense, but last night...”

He tried not to react to that. “There is more to life than sex, and I have responsibilities. And no, sadly, the corporal's situation is not a joke, as much as it should be.”

She wrapped her arms around him. “Oh?”

“He almost wrecked a battlestar,” Lee told her. “While having sex.”

She laughed, and he told himself to ignore the way it felt when she was pressed up against him. “That is priceless. You actually have to defend him?”

“Yes, and saying he's an idiot isn't enough,” Lee said, taking her hands off him again, turning to face her. “I have to go. I know you may have different expectations, but this is how it is, how I am, and how I work. I won't ignore what I have to do because of this... thing between us, whatever it is.”

He walked away from her, going into the shower. She could leave, and he'd let her. This wasn't supposed to be permanent. They didn't have to fight about it, didn't have to pretend it was something more than one—now two, he supposed—nights.

He kept the shower short and the water cold, cleaning off fast and drying even faster, since he didn't want to risk her deciding that she could shower with him or ambush him just after he got clean. He made it past underwear with out incident, which surprised him. He went to the dresser, pulling out a set of tanks and putting them on as he headed for the closet.

She met him at the closet door, leaning against it and watching him go through his uniforms. “You ever wear your dress grays to court?”

“Only for high profile cases. Capital offenses and treason, that sort of thing.”

“Hmm. I would have thought you'd have to have something special for going before a judge.”

“Judges wear dress grays,” Lee said. He took out a uniform and held it up for her. “This is what I typically wear to court.”

“Lords. I'm not sure that's going to happen.”

He frowned. “What?”

She grinned. “Exactly how long do you think you'd get to keep that uniform on, anyway?”

He started to shake his head and ended up laughing.

* * *

Kara would have expected to be bored out of her skull sitting in the back of a military courtroom and listening to testimony, but she wasn't. She'd never cared about what went on in a courtroom, didn't think she ever would. She'd been here a few times herself, up for some infraction or other, and her experiences with FLAC lawyers weren't good ones. Lee was the only decent one she knew. Hell, she used to crack FLAC jokes with the best of them.

Now, though, she wasn't bored. The trial was still boring, but what interested her was what Lee did during it. He had different ways of sitting depending on who was speaking, and he would play with his pen or make notes. She could watch him turn the pen over for hours, which seemed frakking ridiculous, but then she wasn't just thinking about the pen but what the hand holding it could do, in and out of the bedroom.

When Lee rose to question a witness, she found herself leaning forward with anticipation, wondering if he was about to destroy the person on the stand—Lords, he did it beautifully, and she almost felt sorry for the frakkers—or take a sympathetic note that got the witness and the judges on his side. His voice did things to her, too, and she swore it wasn't just because she knew what it was like when they were intimate that made it so appealing. She could listen to him for hours, and she found herself getting frustrated when he stopped speaking and the witness took over.

“And in your opinion, Chief,” Lee asked, pretending to search his papers and not look at the witness, “would the kind of damage caused when Corporal Danner hit the panel have been as extensive as it was if the ship was properly maintained?”

“Objection,” the prosecutor said. “Prejudicial.”

Lee gave the woman a thin smile. “I'll rephrase. Chief—how essential is the panel in question?”

“Not very. Not at all, actually.”

“And yet this 'nonessential' panel somehow caused enough damage to the ship to render it structurally unsound,” Lee said, fixing the witness with a look that had him squirming. “How would you explain that?”

“I... I can't, sir.”

Lee shook his head. “I think it's more a case of won't, isn't it? You don't want to say what probably caused the damage to the ship, and it wasn't Corporal Danner's ill-advised liaison. Now, I admit, my own experience with repairing ships is limited to a Viper or an occasional Raptor, and no one would ever want me running my own deck, but I've never seen a single panel take out a whole ship when there wasn't something very rotten underneath it.”

The chief squirmed. “I don't know, sir. I didn't service that panel.”

“Do you know who did?”

“No, sir.”

“Wouldn't it be safer to say that no one serviced the panel?” Lee asked. He lifted the papers in his hands, holding them up. “I have logs here for the entire time that the Clarion has been in service, and I see no record at all of anyone ever having worked on that panel. Again, just a former flight jockey here, but I don't believe that can be called proper maintenance.”

The chief looked defeated. “You're right, sir, it isn't.”

Lee nodded. “No further questions.”

The prosecutor grimaced, her face caught in a tight line. “No questions.”

Lee's look suggested she was a fool for not asking any, but he sat down, leaning back in his chair. Kara watched him. She would have thought he'd look smug then, his client certainly did, but she didn't think he was, not really. Interesting.

She wondered why that was. She'd confront him about it later—much, much later because she knew that she was going to have to do something about the way that uniform and everything he'd done in the courtroom today and how that affected her. She'd had more than one thought about slipping out to deal with the problem herself, but she figured when she finally got him alone, the torture would be worth it.

She'd spent almost an entire day of her leave sitting in a frakking courtroom. She should have been bored, but she wasn't, not at all.

* * *

“I think I should press charges,” Lee said, leaning his head back against the stall with a groan. She just laughed, giving him a kiss before putting her head down on his chest, fingers tracing the line of one of his scars through the uniform shirt he still wore and the tanks. “For assault.”

She snorted. “I don't remember you complaining. In fact, I seem to remember something about you thinking about this all day—flattering but a total lie, you know. I watched you. All day. I know what you did in that courtroom. You couldn't have done that if you were thinking about this the entire time. No frakking way.”

“You've never heard of multitasking?” Lee asked, getting more laughter from her. He eased her off of him, needing to clean up before someone came in on them. They'd been fortunate that the room was empty in the first place, and even more fortunate that no one came in while they were distracted. He supposed it was because it hadn't lasted long at all.

“Never heard it used like that,” she said with a smile. “So, now that we've taken the edge off, you want to go finish this properly?”

He snorted. “I think we've already finished it.”

He walked to the sink, washing his hands. He started to fix his uniform, assuming she was doing the same with her own clothes. He wanted to say he couldn't believe he'd done that, but he couldn't lie to himself. He had done it.

“I am starting to think that is the face you get when you have regrets,” Kara said, coming up behind him. “Exactly what about that was worth regretting besides the fact that it didn't last as long as maybe we would have liked? There's nothing wrong with a bit of fast, you know.”

He shook his head. “I don't know that I thought the speed was the problem. It's the... location, the lack of restraint, the—”

“The guilt for destroying that chief on the stand?”

He wanted to deny it, and he didn't like how easy he was for her to read. “He didn't deserve it. It wasn't his responsibility. Someone else dropped that ball, but he'll take the fall for it.”

“And you made that possible. Were you just unable to find someone else to point to, or did you not bother looking for them?”

Lee looked at her. “Why are you asking me that?”

She shrugged. “If you had someone else, you could have put them up there. If you didn't, you did the only thing you could, maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“Well, frak, Lee. You could have found someone else, maybe. Or you could have ignored the whole thing. Except... then you wouldn't be doing your job, would you? You were supposed to defend Danner, and you did. I was impressed.”

“It wasn't much of anything—”

“It was,” she said, taking hold of his uniform again, just the way she had when she cornered him after court ended session. “Trust me, it was.”

“I didn't do anything special,” Lee said. “You should see Major Barr. He has courtroom theatrics that would make a Libran soap opera seem tame.”

“Yes, but you don't need theatrics,” she said, running her hands over his chest. “This is all you, and that is all I need.”

He caught her hands. “I think we should go.”

“Are you—”

“Some things should not be rushed and they should also be done in private.”

She grinned. “Well, what are you waiting for, Captain? Let's go.”

* * *

Kara opened her eyes, looking over at Lee with a frown. She didn't know why she was awake again. She was exhausted—in the best way possible, since nothing much beat the kind of sleep you got after that kind of marathon sex. She should have been asleep for hours, but she wasn't. She should blame that on never staying overnight with others in the past, but it wasn't just that. She was aware of his movements no matter what they were. She hadn't really understood it before, not when she just thought she liked watching him during his interview, or when she knew how to move with him during sex, or when she was in the courtroom seeing him in action.

She woke up because _he_ was awake. He'd left the bed, and she knew it.

“What are you doing?” Kara asked, angrier than intended because she didn't like what she was thinking, this connection she felt to him. What the frak was wrong with her? Why would she even believe that? She didn't need to know where he was, and she was exaggerating it. That sort of thing didn't happen. It just didn't.

He turned a small object over in his hands, pushing a button on it before sitting down and looking at her. “I can't do this.”

Kara sat up, glaring at him. “What the frak can't you do? Face the fact that you're actually interested in sex again? I heard you had a reputation, but you've already done the deed, so—”

“You came to get me to look into the guidance system again,” he said, his eyes falling on her and making her stomach turn. “I can't. I tell myself I will, someday, that I'll get to the point where I have enough and it won't matter who they threaten because I have proof, but I know I'm lying to myself. I won't ever have it, and I can't get it without them knowing and hurting people because of me. Don't look at me like that. You can't tell me that I should risk a whole battlestar's crew for a pilot here and there—”

“It was _me,_ Lee,” she snapped. “I almost died. If I hadn't been as good a pilot as I am, I'd be dead. You'd be dead, too, if you weren't as good, you'd be dead, but right now, I'm not so sure I care about that.”

His eyes returned to his hands. “You should go.”

She set her jaw, shaking her head. She was well past angry and into needing to hit something. She didn't think she would keep her hands off him for an entirely _different_ reason this time. “What the frak is wrong with you?”

“You already know that. You knew when you met me, and I don't see why you're bothering to argue about it—you knew what I'd say. I ended this back at the flight school. It wasn't supposed to happen again. It can't. This—”

“Is not a frakking game,” she said. “I am not going to back off. I'm not letting anyone else die because of a frakking computer and—”

“Kara, they'll kill you,” Lee said, and she started to roll her eyes only to stop and replay the moment in her head. His voice had faltered in the middle, and he still wasn't looking at her, but he'd turned his head to the side. She moved over to get a better look. “Please, just go. Leave it alone. You have to. It's—”

She reached a hand to his face and he jerked back, startled. His eyes hid absolutely nothing from her, and she grabbed hold of him this time, kissing him.

He pulled back. “What are you doing? I thought you were pissed—”

“I am. And I tend to be either frak or fight,” she agreed. “I should hit you, but I actually almost think you're doing this because you're worried about me. Because you _care._ And that... well, that deserves a frak, not a fight.”

“Gods,” he whispered, “what is this? Why did I have to meet you? It was all under control until I saw you—”

“I'm flattered.”

“It's not funny,” he said, his eyes betraying his misery. “How am I supposed to go back to pretending that I don't hate every frakking second of this? That I accept their lies about my crash? That I don't miss being up in the air? Or really, how about the way I'd like to kill every frakking one of them for doing this?”

“So fight them,” she said. “I'll help you. You already know I want to do this.”

He rose, walking away from her. “They threatened my family. They could have killed Mom, Zak, Dad—a whole frakking battlestar. They've already shown me they're willing to do that. They will kill you.”

She snorted. “I want to see them try.”

“You said yourself you almost crashed—”

“But I _didn't,”_ Kara said. “They win when you stop fighting. When you give them what they want. And maybe you did, but you don't have to anymore. I'm not going away. I'm not leaving. I'm not going to accept any of it—because they don't win and you deserve better.”

“Why would you say that? I haven't—”

“Please. You are the biggest bleeding heart I've ever known. You act like a jerk, but that's all it is. An act. It's good. It's better than it should be because you can't lie worth a damn, and those eyes of yours give you away, but people still buy it. I won't. I don't. Nothing you say is going to change that, though you almost had me there. I was almost angry enough to go.”

“You still should.”

She nodded. “Maybe, but I've never been very good about doing the right thing.”


	3. Day Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lee manages to talk Kara into something very not like her, and then he pays for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I managed the fluffy/fun, flirty and almost more thing I figured this story would be. It still surprised me some, though, but mostly in a good way.

* * *

“Do you have court again today?”

Lee shook his head. Danner's trial had gone well, and he'd secured the verdict he needed with his examination of the chief. While he still disliked what he'd done, he'd proved his point and made his case. Danner might not learn from the experience, but he was a free man, at least.

“Trial finished early.”

“Because you're good,” Kara said, wrapping her arms around his back. “I have to admit, I'm a bit disappointed. I think I could have enjoyed watching you in court again. And everything we did after you were done.”

Lee looked at her. “Including the fight?”

She hit him. “You know better than that. Why would I want to fight with you? Well, the make up sex was good, but that's not a reason to fight all the time.”

“Who are you and what have you done with Starbuck?”

She grinned. “Maybe I should ask you what you've done with her because I figure this is all your fault.”

“My fault? How is it—”

“I told you before—I don't do this with guys. I don't go back for seconds. They don't stay the night. I don't visit them on other frakking planets,” she said. “This? I've only done it with you. And it is too frakking weird that I'm doing it at all.”

“Why?” he asked, reaching for the coffee pot. “You wanted to use me to investigate the problems with the guidance system.”

“I'm going to hit you again. Do you honestly believe that is the only reason I came?”

He filled the cup, not looking at her. “I suppose you'll say it was for the sex.”

“Damn right. You are good at it, though I shouldn't tell you that. You'll get a big head or something. Bad enough you have the name of a god and the body of one—”

“I do not have either,” Lee almost snapped. He didn't know why she couldn't let the Apollo thing go. It was over. He was never going to fly again, and even when he had, the call sign wasn't even a good joke.

“Gods, must you be so difficult?”

“Me? Like you're some kind of prize,” he muttered. He didn't know what it was about her, why he was so weak to her, why she had the effect on him that she did. He wanted it just to be sex. It would have been a hell of a lot easier than it was, but she already brought out something in him that he didn't like. He'd always been protective—of his brother but even to a warped degree, his mother—and now he knew he felt the same about Kara.

“I am,” she said. “So... you taking me out to show me off?”

“What?”

She grinned. “Come on. You thought I'd forget, didn't you? You said that you were busy because you had court, but since your trial is already over, that makes you a free man, doesn't it?”

“I have other responsibilities—”

“Frak them. You owe me a tour.”

Lee frowned. “I don't owe you anything. You showed up here, assaulted me—multiple times, I might add—and demanded my help. That doesn't mean I have to give it. We already talked about this—no, don't start again. Not now.”

She frowned, and he leaned over to cover her mouth, putting his mouth next to her ear. “They could be listening. Don't say anything else. I don't have the proper countermeasures running.”

Kara shook her head but managed to sound unaffected. “Well, if you put it _that_ way, I think we can put the tour on hold for you to show me the bedroom. Again.”

He grimaced, but then she grabbed hold him and kissed him and he found himself allowing her to distract him again.

* * *

“Didn't you pack anything else?”

Kara made a face, dropping the offending shirt back on the floor. She should have known it would be a little ripe, but then so was the other one. She hadn't really thought far enough ahead, and while she might have known she had a week's worth of leave, she wasn't sure she'd need it or that she'd stay here as long as she had.

She was just supposed to be here to get him out of her system, and yet somehow, he kept burrowing in deeper without even _trying._ Hell, the frakker had tried to push her away, and she still wanted him. Maybe she was a sucker, finding that sort of thing appealing. She was a screw up, but did that really mean that she only wanted the ones that didn't want her?

Not that she could say that Lee didn't want her. He _did,_ and he'd proved that enough over the past couple days.

“I grabbed a go bag,” Kara said, shrugging. “What else did I need?”

“More than one change of clothes,” Lee told her. He shook his head as he reached into his dresser, coming back with a t-shirt the same color as his eyes. He held it out to her. “This one's a little small—”

“Then you should definitely wear it.”

He grimaced. “No. I don't—it—Just no.”

“Something wrong?” Kara asked, pulling the shirt over her head. Lords, it was soft. And gods, it smelled like him. She was never giving this thing back. Ever. “Or should I just skip right to asking you if you like what you see?”

“I have a feeling I'd like anything you wore,” he said, and she grinned. “Don't start. You still should have more than a shirt. And don't say it's not necessary because we won't be leaving here—we will be. And since most of my laundry is uniforms that are sent out to be cleaned—I don't even think there's enough here to make a load for the machine. So... clothes. Apparently that tour you wanted means visiting several of the local stores.”

“You're frakking kidding me. I don't shop.”

“I could tell.”

She swatted him, but he ignored it. “No. I don't do shopping. And you don't, either. We are not going. That's just a frakking waste of our time. I can think of a lot better things to do.”

“And I can think of a few dozen reasons why you have to have clothes. And a dozen more things I'd appreciate seeing you in,” he said. He came over and put his hands on her hips, looking into her eyes. “And it will keep you busy while I go to the office.”

“What?”

He smiled. “I never said I was going with you. I can't. I have things I have to do.”

“But—”

“Compromise,” he said. “We'll meet for lunch. You can surprise me with one of your new purchases, and then we'll go out to eat.”

“I didn't bring any money.”

He groaned. “You're just saying that to screw with me. Fine, you can have some of mine. Consider it a gift from the Ha'la'tha.”

“And you're just saying _that_ to screw with me,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Wait, does this mean I get to drive the car?”

“I already regret this,” he said, and she knew she'd won.

* * *

Kara wasn't big on clothes, but she took Lee up on his suggestion to visit multiple shops—purely to be able to drive in between them. She alternated between sides of town, making sure there was plenty of distance between her and the next destination, and while she considered trying to push the credit card he'd given her to its limit, she didn't feel right about bankrupting him. Any other guy and she wouldn't have cared, would have spent everything he gave her and more, but Lee wasn't just any guy. Something about him changed everything, and she wasn't sure what the frak it was.

She wasn't sure she wouldn't change it if she did.

She parked in front of the latest shop and grimaced. She wasn't that crazy, was she? Kara never wore dresses. So why the frak was she even at this place? All they had was dresses.

Still... Lee did kind of seem like the kind of man who liked girls with dresses. Almost everyone did, or so Helo had told her years ago—and so had her mother. Men frakked girls like her. They didn't do anything else with them—dating was unlikely and marriage out of the question, not that she wanted that anyway—but she knew she wasn't what normal guys wanted.

Lee wasn't normal.

She liked that about him.

She tugged on his shirt, almost sighing again when she caught his scent. This was insane. And so was she, because she was going to get one of those dresses.

* * *

Lee added another note to his growing list, trying to decide if he thought there was enough here to make a case. He had some basis, but what convinced him was far from what convinced a jury. Right now, he wasn't sure this would get past his direct supervisor. It wasn't the same kind of timebomb that the guidance system was, but it would definitely wouldn't be an easy sell.

Someone knocked on his door, and right after it came her voice. “So I hear there's some hotshot lawyer here that just wrapped up a very important case.”

Lee snorted. “You know what that was. It was a joke, and you—frak.”

She leaned against the door frame, and Lee swore the shirt got tighter as she did, which was impressive because it should have been impossible for it to hug her any more than it already was. Little was left to the imagination, not that he needed it. The jeans, too, hugged her like a second skin, and she'd done it on purpose to torture him.

Funny thing was, he wasn't so sure he minded. “I see you had fun this morning.”

“Only because your car is sex on wheels,” she said with a grin. “How can you stand to sit around in this office all day when you know you've got that waiting for you outside?”

He shrugged. He'd bought the car because it was the closest thing he'd found to flying once they'd taken his wings, and he still kept it for that reason. It had been a long time since he'd taken it for more than a short trip around the city. He'd stopped taking leave about the same time as the threat to _Galactica,_ trying to stay close to his family and also placing himself in the sights of his watchers, letting them see he wasn't doing anything to rock their precious boat.

“You owe me lunch.”

“And I figure you technically owe me at least a thousand cubits after your little spree,” Lee countered. “Consider yourself fortunate that dirty money washes clean with interest.”

“Are you still trying to get me to believe that your family was Ha'la'tha? Your father is a frakking battlestar commander. And that book behind you—that has your grandfather's name on it. He frakking wrote books.”

“Doesn't make it any less true,” Lee told her, still finding her reaction to that particular Adama family skeleton amusing as hell. “I know we said lunch—”

“You're not backing out on it, are you?” Kara asked, leaving the door to cross toward him. “No. You don't get to do that. I didn't spend my entire morning doing something as frakking awful as shopping for you to blow me off.”

“I was going to say that if I worked through lunch, I could be out of here in an hour, maybe two,” he said instead, giving her a smile, and she seemed to jump into his lap. He hadn't thought there was enough space for that, but she made it work—possibly hurting herself in the process.

“I like the sound of that.”

He snorted. “You just want to get out of those clothes. Nothing that tight can be comfortable.”

She laughed, leaning her head against his. “You just say that because you wish you were the one taking them off.”

“Gods, Kara. Not in my office.”

“Oh, yes. Maybe not today, but I swear, Lee, by the end of this week, you will have lost your prudishness about this office and doing something here.”

“No.” Lee knew she'd take it as a challenge—she already had—but he refused to do anything here. He knew that they watched him. He knew that they listened to his communications and if they hadn't already known about his grandfather and the Ha'la'tha, he wouldn't have mentioned it. They'd tried to use it against him. He hadn't backed down on that one. Probably a mistake, but it didn't matter now. He was well past it.

“Yes,” she said. “And you owe me lunch.”

“Fine. Let's go get something from the cafeteria.”

“That sounds disgusting.”

“It's not that bad planetside.”

“I teach flight school, remember?”

“Yeah, and I have a theory that the food served in flight school mess is a part of the training regime,” he told her, watching her frown. He prodded her up out of his lap. “Come on. I'll explain as we walk.”

“Sure.”

He smiled at her, escorting her to the door. “No, think about it, Kara. Everything in flight school is meant to test you, to push you to your limits so that when you are actually out in space, feeling those g forces and the pressure of combat—don't start on how there's nothing to shoot these days—you're prepared. You can't be a pilot and have a weak stomach. It just isn't possible. So they give you terrible food to build up your tolerance and stamina under the pressure of poor nutrition.”

“Oh, gods,” she said, starting to laugh. “You've really put a lot of thought into this, haven't you? Listen to you and all those logical reasons.”

He smiled at her, and she wrapped her arm in his, pressing against him as they walked to the mess. He should have known she'd torture him more, but he didn't know that he minded, even if he should.

* * *

“Did I grow a second head?” Kara asked, picking up her drink and sipping from it. She knew she'd worn this outfit with one purpose in mind—getting Lee's attention—and it was working, but she seemed to have the eyes of everyone in the room on her, too. She had to admit—she didn't like it. Normally she would have played up to the crowd, but this wasn't a bar, and the officers were straight up staring at her. She didn't like it.

“You know what it is,” Lee told her, smiling as he took a bite of his food. “I know you're on leave, but technically you should be in uniform while you're here.”

“You told me to surprise you with something I bought, and I did,” she reminded him. “And I don't remember that regulation. I go around in civvies plenty when I'm on base.”

“I imagine discipline is rather lax where you are,” Lee said. He set down his fork, thinking. “I think it's in article eighty-four. Always be prepared to represent the fleet with the highest decorum.”

“You're frakking kidding. Did you _memorize_ the reg book?”

“No, but you're not the first person to accuse me of doing that,” he answered, smiling again and making her choice of outfit very unfortunate. She tried not to squirm. “I have bits and pieces of stuck for various reasons. Cases, a lot of the time—”

“Only I bet that accusation came back at the academy, didn't it?” Kara asked. “Ha, I knew it. You were accused of being _born_ with a reg book, weren't you?”

Lee grimaced, returning his attention to his food. “Yeah, well, no one ever really let me forget who my father was.”

“With the crash being the ultimate proof that you were just skating by on Daddy's coattails, right?” Kara shook her head, angry all over again. “Frak that. I broke your records in the academy, and it wasn't easy. And we both know you still hold one.”

“I was unconscious.”

She wished she hadn't spoiled the mood. She leaned forward across the table. “Okay, so... the regulation against 'improvised inebriants.' Which one is it?”

“Twenty-seven, subsection one-fifty-three. The punishments are actually harsher when your drunk and disorderly was caused by moonshine, of all things. I think because they wanted to discourage the production of alcohol on battlestars.”

She looked at him. “I'm not sure what to think of the fact that you know that. I mean, on the one hand, it's funny. On the other, it's frakking pathetic.”

He snorted, laughing, and now she realized that the stares weren't actually directed to her. They were staring at the table, but not her. At _Lee._ Considering the version of him she'd met, she knew this was a far different man. Had Lee _ever_ laughed in front of them? Not the theatrical court laugh, but the real laugh he'd just given her?

“Do you realize how many cases of drunk and disorderly I deal with in a year? Try harder, Starbuck. That was too easy.”

She grinned back at him, prepared to lay one on him, a good one, something that would stump him—or prove he was a hopeless geek—when a man leaned down next to Lee's ear.

“Captain, are you feeling well?”

Lee looked over at the man with a frown. “What? Oh, yes, I'm fine, thank you, Major.”

“Are you certain? I don't think—”

“Sir, I'm fine. I've cleared my docket, and I should be done with my last brief in about an hour, so I was thinking of leaving early, but not because I'm sick.”

“That shouldn't be a problem,” the major said. “Still, are you sure you're not—”

“I said I'm fine, sir,” Lee bit out, annoyed. “If I wasn't, I'd have requested leave through the appropriate channels. As I have not, I do not believe you have any cause for concern. Sir.”

The major nodded. “Very well, Captain. As you were.”

Kara watched the other man leave, glaring at his back and then having a terrible thought. “Isn't there some regulation about saluting or standing when being spoken to by a superior officer?”

Lee looked at her, smiling again. “Which one do you want? Because there are about seven different ones and—”

“Oh, frak it,” she said, closing the distance to kiss him.

* * *

“In retrospect, maybe I should have worn _this_ to your office.”

Lee shook his head, still not capable of words. They should be past this—they'd done the stripping of those overly tight clothes that had definitely not wanted to come off, and they should probably have been thinking about dinner, but there was Kara, standing in the doorway, wearing lingerie.

“That bad? I thought it looked kind of nice.”

“Kara—”

“And the fabric is so nice and soft and silky—”

“Kara—”

“And it has this very nice bit of lace just here—”

“Shut up and get the frak over here.”

“Yes, sir.”


	4. Day Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lee and Kara come up against the tricky concept of emotional entanglement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I thought it would be easy to fill a week's worth of romantic interactions, little moments that would show why Lee and Kara had fallen as far as they had by the time he had to go to _Galactica._
> 
> I was wrong. They're a lot harder to find fluff and little moments before, even in an AU where Zak's death hasn't complicated things for them. They just seem to resist the idea of getting closer, which is the opposite of this point of this story. Either I really suck at plot, fluff, or both.

* * *

Kara ran her fingers through Lee's hair again, liking the feel of it between her fingertips. She could do this for hours. She probably had by now, since she'd woken long before he did. In his sleep, Lee seemed younger, the cares and bitterness that he lived with during the day were gone, leaving him more at peace than she'd ever known him, and she liked seeing him like this.

Lords, this was all wrong. This wasn't her. She didn't know what it was about him that made her feel like this, but it wanted to make her run. She should have taken the out he gave her last night and gone, left him behind and done her best to forget him.

“What is about you?” Kara whispered, knowing he wouldn't answer. She didn't have one herself, couldn't explain the connection or the want or the frakking _need_ she had for him. Well, _maybe_ she could explain the want. Lee was a very attractive man, still fit despite his role as a lawyer instead of a pilot, and he did have the body of a god, no matter what he said. The scars didn't ruin anything. They might even enhance it.

Still, the rest of it didn't make sense.

She'd intended to use him, wanted both the sex and the investigation into the guidance system, and that should have been all it was. The sex was better than expected, so she understood wanting more of it, but he'd shot her down repeatedly about the investigation, and she should be more upset about that. She wasn't.

She knew he wanted out of the nightmare he was in, and she wanted to help him find that way out. No one deserved to live like that. That, and she still didn't think it was right he'd been grounded. The crash was bad, but physically, he seemed recovered, and he should be allowed to try. Even if he couldn't handle a Viper anymore, she thought he'd manage a Raptor or a civilian craft.

And she wanted to see him fly. Frak, she should have gotten him in the simulators when she first met him. She knew he wouldn't have done it, but it would have been possible there where it wasn't here. She could have arranged it; she had the access. Still, he hadn't stayed long enough, and she knew he wouldn't have agreed to it. She knew that. Even now it was difficult to talk him into much of anything, and she had a better sense of him than she had a few hours in, when all they had was a bit of sex to connect them.

Now they had something else, and it confused her.

She looked down to see his eyes open, watching her. She gave him a slight smile. “Hey.”

“Hi,” he said, almost seeming surprised to see her. “What time is it?”

“Still early, I think. Your alarm hasn't gone off, not that I really think you should go in to work today. I still haven't gotten my tour. You owe me.”

He snorted. “You're the one that took leave without planning anything. I didn't take any time off, and I have work to do. You have to amuse yourself.”

“Why? Sex is a lot more fun with two people.”

He laughed. “You are terrible.”

“I am,” she agreed, leaning over to kiss him. “And you are absolutely frakking adorable when you're sleeping. It was all I could do not to ravish you in your sleep.”

“Pervert,” he teased, and she laughed. “I don't know if I trust you not to molest me in my sleep. You're not shy about doing it when I'm awake.”

“It's good when I do, isn't it?”

He reached over and cupped a hand on her cheek. “I don't know what to do with you. I know that this... shouldn't be happening, but it does, and I know I should tell you to go, but I won't. I don't want to, and that scares me.”

“It scares me how much I want to stay,” she admitted. “Gods, what the frak is wrong with us? We have every reason in the worlds not to do this, right? Still, I don't want to stop. You don't want to stop. And it's not just about sex. It would be easier if it was.”

“Yes, it would.”

She leaned down to kiss him, stopping just before she did. “Take today off. Call in sick if you have to.”

“You realize I still work for the military. I don't get to call in sick. And they watch me, so they'd know I was lying.”

“Yeah, about that. Why are you so unwilling to talk about things but willing to have sex where they're listening and possibly watching?”

He grimaced. Leaning over to the nightstand, he picked up the device she'd seen him playing with last night. “In part because I sincerely hope they wouldn't listen or watch that, but in part because the passive stuff I have in place should block the general noises of intercourse, but I take extra precautions when I'm doing something they can use against me.”

“And you think they won't use sex against you?”

“They haven't with anyone else, but you're different. You say none of your men last. None of my women do, either. I haven't had anyone last more than a night since the crash. And they have to know how you feel about that and the guidance system. They'd be more likely to try something with you than they would some random woman I picked up to relieve tension.”

“Seriously? That's all sex was to you?”

“Isn't it all fun to you?”

“Gods. I don't know,” Kara admitted. Sometimes it wasn't any fun at all, and it wasn't good like it was with Lee. Sometimes she regretted picking the man up, and she wasn't willing to keep any of them around, so it wasn't like she could really say it was good. “It's different.”

“Yeah,” he whispered. “It is.”

* * *

“You made breakfast?”

Lee gave her a smile. “Well, you showered. I figured that deserved some kind of reward.”

She hit him. “Excuse me. It's not like I _never_ shower, okay? I have hygiene. You may not believe that because I packed light, but that's not the same thing as never taking a bath. And if you recall, I offered to shower with you, more than once.”

He did remember. He knew why he'd refused, too, which showed he still had some restraint left. He had managed to turn her down, more than once, for that at least. It wasn't the best thing he'd ever done, and it wasn't like he didn't regret it as well—he still wanted her, didn't think he would ever stop wanting her—which was an issue in of itself—but he did comfort himself with his ability to say no to something.

“So, what did you make me?” Kara asked, coming over to his side. She leaned into him, and he never thought that he would find the scent of his own soap that appealing. “Wow. This is a frakking feast, Lee. Why didn't you tell me you could cook?”

He grimaced. Going into that meant a lot of things, none of which he wanted to discuss. He hadn't made a woman food in a long time, not since his mother, really, since his last relationship had crashed and burned when his Viper did. Talking about why he'd learned to cook was almost as bad. His father's absences, his mother's drinking problem—no, he was not discussing them.

“Oh. You're that bad, huh?”

Lee shrugged. “You try it and see for yourself.”

She reached into the pan, picking up a piece of bacon and biting into it with a moan. “Oh, Lords. You are cooking for me for the rest of your life.”

Lee stared at her. “Um... it was one piece of bacon, and that's pretty hard to mess up. Not sure you want me for life.”

She looked up at him, eyes wide and panicked. “Um... Maybe I should... I was going to get dressed. Had another... I'm getting dressed. Don't eat all of that before I get back.”

Lee forced a smile. “Trust me, you don't have to worry about that. I don't...”

“Don't trust your own cooking?” Kara teased with a wide grin. She shook her head and left, going back into the bedroom. Lee leaned against the counter and let out a breath. He didn't know what the hell had happened just then and didn't know what to think about it. 

Had she really said—no, she hadn't. She'd had a slip of the tongue, that was all. She didn't want him for the rest of her life—how many times had she said she didn't even date past the first night? And he was the same way. He didn't date. She was the first woman he'd spent more than a few hours with in years—and that even included his mother. He didn't want forever any more than Kara did.

He shook his head. It didn't matter. A slip of the tongue was just that. She'd been joking. She hadn't even had that much of what he'd cooked. This whole thing was ridiculous.

* * *

Kara shut the bedroom door behind her, leaning against it and closing her eyes. She was a frakking idiot. She couldn't believe she'd said that. She didn't talk forever. How the frak had that happened? Even when she was young and stupid and a bit desperate to get away from her mother, she hadn't mentioned forever to her boyfriends. She hadn't thought they'd stick around. She might have used them, but they hadn't lasted to do what she would have needed.

She couldn't believe she was thinking about that with Lee. Yeah, sure, they were both aware that they weren't acting like normal, not when they were actually doing something that almost passed for dating when neither of them did. They'd just talked about it. That didn't mean that they were ready for the whole thing, that colonial dream of husband, kids, and a frakking house.

She ran a hand over her face. She should just go. She should take a flight back, spend what was left of her leave drunk off her ass, maybe pick up someone else, and forget all about Lee Adama and all his issues. And the frakking guidance system.

Kara shook her head, banging her head back against the wall. What the frak was she doing?

It was one piece of bacon. That did not mean she was going to marry him.

Gods, had she actually just _thought_ that? Something was very frakking wrong with her.

* * *

Lee noted that Kara not only picked a subdued outfit despite her words about surprising him with more of what she'd bought, she didn't put up a fight when he left for work. Their meal had been tense, and he didn't think he would be surprised if she wasn't around when he got done for the day. It probably would be for the best.

His own reaction to that was not something he wanted to think about.

Lee set his things down in his office and took a seat in his chair, leaning back with a frown. He had briefs to prepare, another trial to plan, but he couldn't concentrate. Kara had thrown off his concentration before, but that was about sex. This wasn't the same.

Sex was a physical act. 

This...

He was afraid this was about emotional entanglement.

That was not something he was prepared for. It wasn't something he could afford or wanted, and it blindsided him. What the frak was this? He didn't do feelings, not anymore. He had anger, and that was a constant companion, had been since he crashed. He'd used it to get him through physical therapy, and he'd used it to cut a reputation through FLAC that gave him certain privileges and kept most everyone away.

They threatened his family. He knew better than to have attachments.

He couldn't allow himself to feel anything for anyone, especially not Kara.

Trouble was...

He already did.

* * *

Kara leaned against the wall, phone in one hand, bottle of ambrosia in another. She was an idiot, but she had to do something. She was about to frak everything up, and she couldn't do this. She didn't know _what_ the frak to do.

The line connected at last, and she heard the voice she needed, the one that almost passed for reason with her.

“Kara?”

“Helo. I... I needed to talk.”

“Are you drunk? Aren't you supposed to be teaching class? What are you doing?”

“I'm on leave,” Kara said. She didn't want to explain all of it. “I just... I needed some time after a bad landing.”

“Since when do you have bad landings?”

“Since I almost joined Babydoll and Katman,” she answered, taking another sip of the ambrosia. She shook her head, wishing she was already a lot drunker than she felt right now. “Karl, I screwed up.”

“Flying?”

“No. That wasn't my fault. I know it wasn't. I've never lost control of a bird like that, and I won't now. I got it down, and I know I'm frakking lucky I did,” Kara told him. She took another swig. “I don't know what to do.”

“Thought you had a line on that.”

She snorted. “You know that's not true. We fought about it, remember? I nailed you in the face for suggesting that I might want something more than a frak from a certain irritating lawyer.”

“I remember,” Helo said. “You could try again to talk to him. Maybe you can get more you can use, even if he won't do anything about it.”

Kara frowned. That might actually be true. She knew Lee had been threatened into silence and inaction, but he also said he had passive countermeasures to their surveillance and kept stronger ones around as well—he hadn't stopped looking into the guidance system. He just didn't tell her that.

“Thanks, Helo. I know what I have to do.”

* * *

Lee looked over his notes again with a frown. Did any of that actually make sense? He wasn't sure he'd understood anything he'd just read, and the legal precedents were far from what he needed to bring out in court, so why was he wasting his time?

Because he'd tried and failed to distract himself from this morning, but this wasn't working, and neither was he. He shook his head, setting down his pen. He shouldn't be like this. He didn't know why he was having this much trouble keeping his focus.

He looked up at the knock on his door, swallowing with difficulty when he saw Kara standing there. She still had the subdued look from earlier, and she seemed a bit hesitant. He forced a smile, hoping this wasn't going to get more awkward than it already was. “Hey.”

“Hi,” she said, and he wondered if she realized they'd reversed their earlier roles. “You free for lunch?”

He shook his head. “I... kind of took it already. I was hoping food would improve my drafts, but I'm not getting anywhere with them. Why?”

She shrugged, crossing over to him. “I was thinking.”

He nodded. He'd done too much of that himself. “Did you want me to see you off, then?”

“You assuming I'm leaving?”

“Well, I think you only liked the bacon, not the rest of the meal, which means the idea of cooking for you forever is out of the question,” Lee said, though he could have kicked himself for it afterward. This was the last thing he wanted to talk about.

She stopped at his desk, leaning against it. “No, the food was all good. You're not a half bad cook, Adama. Some people might even call you the whole package.”

He snorted. Then he recognized what he smelled and frowned. “Have you been drinking?”

She shrugged. “Maybe a little. Nothing to worry about, though you must have one hell of a nose because I didn't dribble.”

He didn't bother explaining. He wasn't going to say he knew it well from when his mother thought she was hiding it and that he'd gotten so used to searching for it during his childhood. “Maybe. Why are you here?”

“I want to talk with some... special precautions taken,” she told him. “Can we do that?”

He shouldn't, but he was curious, and she should be gone. “We can. It will have to wait, though. I already had lunch, and I can't really leave early—”

“You said yourself you weren't getting anything done,” she reminded him. “Come on, Lee. It's not even worth it if you can't concentrate, and since we both know I'm the one distracting you, you may as well face it and get it over with.”

He wanted to argue with her logic, but he couldn't. “Let's go.”

* * *

“What did you want to talk about?”

“The guidance system.”

Lee stared at her. “What? Why are we discussing this again? I thought we established that. We did back when we first met, though you're being damned stubborn about it. Kara, you have to accept that I can't do anything about it. I won't risk my family or my father's crew.”

She nodded. She'd known he was going to say that, but she wasn't done. Not yet. “You wouldn't have frakking countermeasures if you'd given up completely. I'm not an idiot. You might think I am—”

“I don't,” Lee told her. She had never seemed stupid to him. He might think she pulled some stupid, dangerous stunts, but she was not an idiot. “You're a talented, beautiful woman. You have issues, but then I'm not one to talk.”

“You kept looking into it even after they told you to stop,” she said, knowing she was right. “You wouldn't let it go, not completely, not after what they threatened. You're not stupid, either. You wouldn't believe that just dropping it was enough.”

He looked away, twisting his lip as he did. “Kara, you shouldn't pursue this.”

“Like you haven't.”

He sighed. “Of course I have. This thing ruined my life. I almost died, I couldn't walk, and I lost my career. I don't care as much about that as I do the fact that they grounded me for life, but you're right. I can't just pretend that they didn't threaten my family. I know what they're capable of, and I can't just ignore it.”

“So you have proof?”

“No. They're too careful for that. I have... I have a bit of circumstantial evidence. I have a list. In my head because I can't keep it on paper or on anything electronic. I have every incident, every near miss or crash or malfunction I'm aware of that I believe was caused by the guidance system. It's not a short list, but it's not proof, either.”

Kara nodded. She'd known it, but she was glad there was confirmation. “So if you tried to make a case, you could.”

“I have a list,” he corrected. “I don't have evidence. By the time I went to access it, it could all be gone.”

“Give me the list.”

“No,” Lee said. “I won't risk it. Don't ask me again. I won't change my mind.”

Kara sighed. “You need to let me help.”

“You just keep yourself and your nuggets alive,” Lee told her, coming to her side, putting his hands on her arms. “I don't want this to destroy you, too, and you said it almost killed you once. You don't know that it wasn't because of what you did, going on record against my findings. Don't let them hurt you.”

“I won't,” she said, reaching up to touch his face. “And I won't let them hurt you, either.”

“Gods, this is frakked up. I don't know what to do. You can't—”

“We fight them until we can't,” Kara told him. “You and me. You can't shut me out of this. I won't let you.”

He looked like he was warring with a million things he wanted to say, but he didn't say anything. He moved his hands to her face and kissed her, desperate and passionate all at the same time, and she figured they'd talked enough for now. She knew they'd still have to deal with that stupid frakked up comment she'd made about forever, but that could wait.

Maybe it could even wait forever.


	5. Day Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lee and Kara continue their awkward dance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so all I could think when I tried to write Lee's CO was Chegwidden. I kept hearing his voice in my head and picturing him, so that kind of threw off a part of this, but it's okay.
> 
> And the dress part, well, it might be lame and something else might be too fast, but it seemed like it worked.

* * *

Kara opened her eyes slowly, not wanting to wake up at all. She was comfortable and warm, with a nice hard body next to her, one doubled as a nice pillow. Her companion was already awake, though, and she looked up to see his eyes on her.

She gave him a slight smile. “Hey. How long have you been watching me?”

“A while. You're even prettier when you sleep.”

She snorted. “I do not do pretty.”

He reached over to comb his fingers through her hair. She liked the way that felt, actually. She wouldn't have thought it—the only time she'd had anyone touch her hair before, it wasn't a good thing. Her mother was far from gentle when she had hold of it.

“You don't look like a man who thinks I'm pretty. I think you're thinking I'm frakkable, but that's not the same thing,” she said, leaning up to challenge him. He shook his head just before she got hold of him, kissing him hard. She wouldn't object to starting the morning with a frak. And why not? She had a sun god in her hands.

Lee pulled away from her. “You can't take a compliment, can you?”

She shrugged. “I know what I am. I'm not fooling myself. Pretty I'm not, though I have a pretty good right hook and a mean left, too, when I want to use them. Right now, I am thinking that the one who deserves the word 'pretty' is you, and I would very much like to take advantage of it. And you.”

He smiled. “I object to the word pretty as well. It's not masculine enough, and I'm lawyer enough to care about the semantics. Also... I got really sick of the term 'pretty boy' going through the Academy. It was right up there with 'Daddy's boy,' and if I never hear them again in my life, it will be too soon.”

She studied him. “Well, I might be willing to lay off using them, but you'll have to give me something in return.”

“Why do I think I know exactly what you want?”

“Because you do,” she said, moving her hand down his body, making sure that even if he had been wrong, he would be on the right track now. “You are good, after all. Smart, sexy... Like I told you before, Adama, you're the whole package.”

He rolled his eyes. “Far from it, Thrace. You have delusions but—frak, Kara, don't—”

“Good morning, Lee.”

He groaned, but she knew he wasn't complaining, not really.

* * *

“So, what would it take to get you to take a day off?” Kara asked, leaning against Lee's counter and sipping from her coffee cup. She seemed almost smug, but then she had gotten what she wanted for breakfast—in more than one sense of the word.

“I can't,” Lee told her, shaking his head as he went for a refill. She didn't know how hard it was to say no to her, but he didn't have a choice. If he wanted time off, he had to give more than a day's notice. He needed to file file for leave well in advance unless it was an emergency. “Next time, you'll have to tell me you're coming and let me take the same leave as you.”

“I was able to get my leave without much notice.”

“I already said your chain of command is a little lax when it comes to discipline. Trust me, mine isn't,” Lee told her, filling his cup.

“Come one. One day. How bad could it be?”

“Under section fifty-three of the military code of conduct—”

“Gods, I can't believe you knew that,” she said, shaking her head and laughing. “Well, I can, I guess, but I'm still a bit surprised.”

“But not impressed?”

“By you being a geek?” Kara teased, taking hold of his shirt and pulling him in for a kiss. She stopped just before she did. “Not really.”

“I am not—”

“You are so adorable when you pout,” she said, tapping him on the nose. “Gods, why? Why the frak is that appealing? I shouldn't want you this much. You are not my type.”

“Let me guess—your type generally has wings.”

She stepped back, letting go of his shirt and shaking her head. “I cannot frakking believe you just said that to me. As if I only go for military guys and only pilots out of all of them. It's not like pilots are that good. You are the exception more than the rule.”

“I'm not a pilot,” Lee said. “I would think that would be a bit hard to forget.”

“You _are_ a pilot. They might have taken that away on paper, but they haven't taken it from your mind or your body. I bet if you were up there right now, you'd be just as frakking good as you were before the crash.”

“That is never going to happen.”

“You're dating a frakking flight instructor. I can make it happen.”

He swallowed. She was tempting him in a way he should never be tempted. Gods, half the reason he was in this mess was because he wanted his wings back. He'd thought FLAC was the answer to that, but he'd only managed to trap himself.

“No.”

“Come on, Lee. You know you want to.”

“I do, but if—”

“So let's do it. You should be up in the air, not stuck on the ground. It's not right.”

“I can't. If I do that, they'll go through with one of their threats. They'll hurt you or my mom or Zak or Dad or his whole frakking battlestar. No. It's not happening. Don't—just don't, please. I have to accept that my wings are gone. They... are. That's all there is to it.”

“Frak that. This is wrong.”

Lee turned away, setting down his coffee. “Look, I am going to go get dressed. I will be late if I don't. I'm not sure how you'll amuse yourself, but you can find some way of doing that, I'm sure.”

“Don't do this. Don't—”

“Kara, please, just let it go.”

He could feel her glaring at him all the way to the bedroom.

* * *

Kara turned the Pyramid ball over in her hand, wondering if Lee actually played or not. She wasn't sure why he had one if he didn't, but then maybe he was a fan and picked it up somewhere. Maybe it was a game ball, even. That would be kind of awesome.

That was about the only part of her day that was. She sighed. This was frakking boring. She had nothing to do with Lee gone. His apartment might be on the top floor, but for a penthouse it was kind of lame. He didn't have his own pool, his own gym... What was the frakking point? She understood him wanting his privacy—not that he really had it if he was being spied on by FLAC or whoever it was behind this whole conspiracy with the guidance system—but why not have anything else?

Or maybe he wasn't as rich as the penthouse and the car implied. He'd said it was from his grandfather, so it was some kind of inheritance, but he was a military officer, and he did not make that much money. She could almost bet on it.

She held up the Pyramid ball and turned it over in her hand.

She needed something to do. Now. Before she did something stupid.

* * *

“I bet I can make you take time off.”

Lee rolled his eyes. “I think you've already won if you were betting on me being annoyed by this conversation.”

“I wasn't, but I'm still not kidding. I think I can get you to agree to just about anything,” Kara insisted. Lee shook his head. He should never have picked up the phone. He should be working, and he did not need another distraction. He couldn't stop thinking about her offer, and it was driving him crazy.

“Kara, the sex is good, but not _that_ good,” Lee said, and she laughed on the other end of the line. He almost didn't hear the throat clear behind him. He looked up at the admiral and somehow managed not to wince. “I have to go.”

He hung up and started to rise, but the admiral waved him off. “At ease, Captain.”

“Is there something I can do for you, sir?” Lee asked, hoping that his commanding officer hadn't heard everything, though what he could almost guarantee the admiral had heard was bad enough. He'd managed to humiliate himself—with Kara's help—and he couldn't believe he'd done it except he could. He swore that he'd shut that door, though.

“Just looking into a small matter,” the admiral said, and Lee frowned. He knew that Admiral Winspear was a former pilot himself, though the majority of his career had actually been spent here, in FLAC, and he was still considered the person you did not want to face in the courtroom. “I had a report from Major Boyd.”

“I'm not sure I understand,” Lee said. “I haven't had any cases intersect with Boyd's since that gross negligence case almost six months ago.”

“Yes, I remember. As I recall, you handed his ass to him wrapped up in a tight little bow.”

Lee tried not to react to the admiral's choice of words. “He didn't have a case. All I did was prove that.”

“With a ruthless determination and the kind of tenacity that made your father a hero of the Cylon war,” the admiral said with a smile. “I was impressed, and I don't do impressed very often. I'm not surprised he's been scheduling you on cases that won't go near his in a courtroom.”

“Sir, if the major has lodged some kind of complaint—”

“He actually claimed to be concerned. I understand you left early the other day?”

“Um, yes. I did. My trial ended earlier than anticipated, leaving me with a light docket, and when I finished it, I went home. That... isn't a problem, is it? I know I didn't clear it with anyone in advance, but I made sure my responsibilities were taken care of before I left.”

“I don't doubt it,” Winspear said, and Lee frowned. The older man smiled, folding his arms over his chest. “Adama, you do your job, and you do it well. If you want to take a half day, then you take the damned half-day. You've earned your fair share. More than that, since I don't recall you taking leave since you switched designations and joined my command.”

Lee shook his head. “I had emergency leave once. My mother and brother were in a car accident, and I took time then. This wasn't an emergency. I just...”

“Had a date?”

Lee cleared his throat. “I'm not entirely sure my private life is relevant to—”

“Boyd thought you might have been sick and claimed I'd need someone to cover for you,” Winspear said. “I had a good laugh at that. Knowing you, you'd prepare your own briefs and make your closing arguments while running a fever or even bleeding to death.”

Lee grimaced. “I'm not that bad.”

The admiral just smiled. “Of course not.”

* * *

Kara told herself not to panic. She was Starbuck, and Starbuck _never_ panicked.

Starbuck also didn't wear dresses or high heels, didn't do make up or curl her hair. And she didn't do any of that for a guy. Not ever. She could count the times she'd worn a dress on one hand, and that included this moment right now.

She was a frakking idiot.

She needed a bottle of ambrosia just to make this moment disappear.

Still, her hand was knocking on the door before she could stop herself. She doubted that was very ladylike, but she didn't care. She needed to do this before she backed out and ran, probably killing herself tripping over the frakking heels.

“You know, Captain, you work way too damn much,” she said, leaning against the door frame. “What does a girl gotta do to get you out of your office?”

Lee looked up at her and stared. He just _stared._ His mouth hung open, and he continued to look at her like he'd never seen her before. She'd thought the reaction to her other outfit was good, but this was frakking priceless.

“So... You gonna put on some dress grays and make this worth my while or what?”

“Gods,” he whispered, leaning back in his chair. “I don't...”

“I love that I have reduced you to that. Incoherent looks good on you,” she told him. “So good that I would so take advantage of that look and you being stunned into submission and frak you senseless right here because I _am_ going to get you to break your no office sex rule, but I didn't get this dressed up to waste it on this office.”

“You're forcing me to take you out.”

“Yes, and it has to be somewhere you'd take a normal girl who got this stupid for you. The works, Adama. Dinner, a show, whatever the frak it is regular people do.”

“We are not regular people,” Lee told her, rising from the desk. “Why the frak would we want to do what they do? Besides, I've done the dinner and show thing before. It's overrated.”

“I haven't.”

Lee let out a breath. “I know it probably doesn't feel like it, but they were doing you a favor. Dinners are full of awkward conversations and shows are boring and sometimes in ancient languages. You're lucky you missed out on the whole Gemenese singing thing. That was torture.”

She laughed. “I bet we'd find a way of making it fun.”

“Yes, we would,” Lee said, getting close to her, pressing her into the door frame. “We'd get kicked out, and it would be your fault. Because you wore that dress.”

“You like it?”

“Yes.”

Oh, gods, it was almost worth it just to hear the way he said that one frakking word. “Lee—”

“Come on,” he said, taking her by the hand. “If we don't go now, we won't go at all, and I seem to remember you saying I owe you more than a frak in this office.”

She nodded. “You bet your ass you do.”

“You want to dance?”

* * *

“You know, when you asked if I wanted to dance, I figured you meant out at a club or some place fancy, a big ballroom or something.”

Lee forced a smile as he adjusted the volume on the radio, turning back to offer her his hand. “I know I owe you more than a bit of a shuffle across my living room when you're dressed like that, but I'm a terrible dancer, and you'd be ashamed to be in public with me, so since you said yes to dancing... this is what I can do.”

She took his hand. “Come on, Lee. How hard is it to dance? I know how well you frak, and I get the feeling if we really fought—hands on, physical fighting—that I'd see you had moves there, too. How can you be that bad at dancing?”

“Please don't stomp my feet if I manage to get yours by accident,” Lee said, and she laughed until she realized he wasn't kidding. He grimaced. “I am bad. I'm not lying to avoid doing this. I'm giving you fair warning.”

She shook her head. “You're overthinking this. You can't dance with a rule book. That's your problem, isn't it?”

“There's nothing in the military code about dancing. Well, you could argue some points on principle, but in fact, there's not even a mention of proper parade march behavior.”

She snorted with laughter. “You should not even know that.”

“Only I do, and I'll prove it if you want me to.”

“I'll take your word for it,” she said, leaning her head against his chest. “Just shuffle your feet and quit worrying so much. We're doing fine.”

"This is fine?” Lee asked. “No. My first girlfriend dumped me because of this.”

“Her loss. My gain.”

“Kara—”

“Don't,” she said, reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck. “I don't need all that other crap. I figure the other guys didn't even think I was worth doing it with, but you—you're a terrible dancer who made a point to dance with me because I had a dress on, and you know what, you're not that bad.”

“I'm worse around people. I don't do well in crowds.”

“That really why you want me all to yourself?”

Lee shook his head. “No. I don't like sharing, but that's not—who the frak needs anyone else when you're here?”

“You're very romantic.”

“I know,” he said, grinning at her. She laughed, and he kissed her, knowing that dance was over and a different one was starting. That part was simple, easy, and he didn't know why the rest of it was as hard as it was, but he didn't want something fake with her—and fake was all those other ordinary relationships had been.

Kara was real. She was special.

And he was completely frakked because he was falling in love with her.


	6. Day Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lee has an alternate assignment and plan for the day. Kara tags along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it has been so hard to get these parts out. I feel like it doesn't live up to what it needs to be, but even after editing, I don't know that I think it's better.
> 
> This one got a bit more into the angstier stuff, since the mothers came into play.

* * *

“Starbuck? Is there a Kara Thrace in there?”

“If there isn't, you have a lot of explaining to do, Adama,” Kara muttered before she rolled over. “I don't share. You're mine.”

“Am I now?” Lee asked, a bit of an edge to his voice. She rolled over to get a better look at him. She didn't know what that was about, but she still couldn't complain about waking up to him. Sure, there should be some kind of mention of morning breath, but she could ignore it when she was looking at a man like him who made her feel the way he did.

Gods, she was still sore in all the right places, and she didn't want to leave this bed. “Do I get breakfast again today?”

“No,” Lee said, but his smile was teasing, and Kara started laughing as she saw it, reaching for him and dragging him down on top of her. “Well, you really won't get it if you manhandle me.”

She snorted. “You like it, Apollo, and don't think you fool me for one frakking second. Besides, you had better have a good reason for waking me up when you're just planning on ditching me for your boring ass job again.”

“Actually,” he said as she started working her hands along his chest and down toward his hips. “I was thinking you might like a drive.”

“I do like your car, but what's the point if you're not in it to have my wicked way with?”

“Well, that's what I was saying,” Lee began, stopping to catch her hands. He held them as he smiled down at her. “What do you think of us going together?”

“Are you frakking kidding me? You keep saying you can't get time off. You won't try, even though I won that bet and we both know it. So why are you teasing me like this?”

“Because I got ordered down to one of our munitions storage facilities outside of the city, and they actually don't authorize Raptor flights for that. I'm supposed to take a few hours driving there and back. It also happens that it's not far from my mother's house, so I could even stay there overnight if I wanted.”

Kara stared at him. “You're not frakking taking me home to meet the family, are you?”

Lee let go of her hands and left the bed. “I don't—no. I actually wouldn't, but not for the reasons you're thinking.”

“You don't want me as more leverage.”

“No.”

“You're ashamed of me.”

“I'm ashamed of _her,”_ Lee said, and Kara frowned at him. “You only saw her on the newsfeeds, if that. You saw the act she put on when she was in front of the cameras. The truth is that...”

“What?” Kara asked, sitting up and moving toward him. She wasn't sure why he'd stopped talking. He seemed to be able to tell her all sorts of things, things he swore he hadn't told anyone else, so what was different about this?

“She's a frakking drunk. I don't care about her approval, and I didn't see the accident as the threat it was because I assumed she'd caused it. She got sober for a while, when I was in the hospital, but when I went into rehab, she started slipping. Apparently, she could be sober if I was going to die, even maybe when I was paralyzed, but when I was going to live and walk again? No.”

Kara winced, going over to his side and wrapping her arms around him. She leaned against his back. “Gods, that is frakked up. And I say that knowing _my_ mother.”

He put his hands over hers. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—”

“Lee, it's your mother that's wrong, not you,” she told him, holding on tighter. “Though I'm not sure why you'd be so willing to protect her if she's like that. I haven't seen my mother since the day I left for the academy.”

“It's complicated,” he said, pulling out of her hold. “Look, I'm going to shower. You make up your mind if you want to drive down with me or not. Mom won't be at her house. She's... back in rehab, supposedly.”

“You really think I'm going to pass up an opportunity to get you away from all your responsibilities? I don't frakking think so. Remember, you're mine.”

He gave her a smile before heading into the other room.

* * *

Lee left his uniform jacket off, enjoying the feel of the sun on his arms as they drove. Kara had tried to talk him into letting her drive, but as much as he enjoyed that, he wasn't about to give up a rare chance to drive for more than the few blocks to work. She could drive on the way back, maybe, but not now. He wanted that for himself.

“So what are you doing at this munitions place?” Kara asked, making a point to stretch out next to him, taking his attention from the wheel. She'd put on another outfit meant to torture him, and he was struggling to keep his eyes on the road despite his insistence on driving. She was doing it on purpose, and he knew it, but he hadn't been able to ignore it, either.

“Investigating a dereliction of duty charge. It's not a major thing. I just have to take a few statements, get a petty officer to admit he left his post, and that will be the end of things.”

“So we might have all night and your mother's house to ourselves?”

Lee nodded. “I thought you might like that.”

“I do. It almost makes up for you not taking time off for real and for only dancing in private.”

Lee looked at her. “I'm never going to be someone who just... goes off and does whatever he frakking feels like. This is as good as it gets for me. If you don't like that, we don't have to keep doing this. I changed after the crash. I can't go back to who I was. That includes taking risks with lives and dancing in public. Even dating. Gods, if they knew about this...”

“You think they don't? I've shown my face at your work several times since I've been here. Almost every day. I was even there when your CO got all weird about you laughing.”

Lee shook his head. “That's not my CO. That's... competition. Admiral Winspear's my CO, and he's... I don't know. He seems to like me. That doesn't mean that whoever is behind this conspiracy isn't watching, that they won't go after you. I can't guarantee they won't, can't protect you—”

“I can frakking fight my own battles.”

“I'm not saying you can't, but if I didn't do everything I could to keep them from going after you, I'd never forgive myself.”

“Gods, you are such a mess.”

“Why are you still here?”

She looked at him. “What? Like I'm that put together? You know I'm not, even if that whole dress thing last night fooled you.”

“As much as I liked it and couldn't stop staring at you, it didn't, actually,” Lee said, and she grinned. “Don't start. You're going to get us into an accident.”

She laughed. “You could always pull over. I still want to have my way with you in the car.”

He groaned. “You are insane. No. We are not doing that in my car. I'm not sure why you keep thinking that you want to, but I'm not as big on public displays as you are. You should know that by now. I'm not into the thrill of getting caught or losing control—”

“Oh, you _like_ losing control. You just don't want to be seen doing it,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I bet you were dying to take your other girlfriends out in the car. Must have been about the only private place you had when you were younger, so why the frak wouldn't you do it? Relive the glory days or something.”

“Those were not glory days. I didn't... It wasn't much of a childhood, and as for those first fumbling times you're trying to refer to, they were not good. Good came much later.”

“And great just got here, didn't it?”

He snorted. “You are such a pain.”

“Yeah, but you like me anyway.”

“I do.”

* * *

Kara leaned against the wall, watching Lee work with amusement and arousal. She hadn't thought he could get more attractive, but it was like the frakking trial all over again, only better because Lee in interrogation was dangerous as well as sexy.

She could trace the lines of his muscles under his uniform, seeing every bit of him even if he was covered. He leaned over the table, getting into the petty officer's face, and she knew he could easily have taken the idiot. The guy was shaking so much she figured he'd already wet his pants.

“Now, Petty Officer,” Lee began, eyes cold as he spoke. “Why weren't you at your post? Did you think that this assignment was some kind of joke?”

“No, sir.”

“Yet you abandoned your post.”

“I just...” the petty officer swallowed, looking around the room like he wanted to run. His eyes were wide and panicked, and she swore she'd never seen someone so pathetic.

“Look at me,” Lee ordered, and the kid did, shaking a little. “You're scared, aren't you? You should be. Still, you can help yourself if you tell me what happened and why you deserted.”

“I didn't! I just... I left for a few minutes. That's all.”

“You are part of the system that keeps our weapons safe against our enemies. If the Cylons came back today, would you have been a part of handing them their victory? Would we have anything to fight them with? Or would you have handed this weapons store over to terrorists like Tom Zarek?”

“I didn't—”

“Didn't respect the uniform. Didn't respect the fleet. Or yourself,” Lee said. “You also didn't think a few minutes away from your post was a big deal. Let me tell you something—this is a story my father told me. When he fought in the Cylon war, he had a friend on his ship. Dad's friend wasn't particularly smart. He was a kid fresh off the streets who got drafted in when things looked bad for the colonies. He didn't know the first thing about fighting or flying. He didn't think anything of leaving a hatch or two open along his way. Do you have any idea what that cost his crew?”

“Uh...” The petty officer gulped. “Look, I didn't know. I just... I was... This is... I just... I don't have a good reason, sir. It wasn't planned. I just left for a few minutes. No one has ever needed me before. They never even should have known.”

Lee shook his head. “You are an idiot. Did you really think any of that was going to fool me?”

The other man stared at him. “What do you mean?”

Kara was curious herself. She'd actually bought the act and thought Lee had, too, after he started in on that story about his father.

“I mean—I know you've been leaving your post on a regular basis. Maybe at first it was innocent. You just wanted a break. Maybe you smoke. Maybe you needed some food. Only you got away with it, and that made you think you could get away with a lot more than a few minutes here or there. You could leave for whole shifts. Or just long enough for someone to go in and take whatever they wanted.”

The other man shook his head. “No. No, sir, I never—”

“Cut the crap,” Lee told him. “Maybe you could have pulled it off with someone else, but I'm not that stupid. You tried to play the innocent idiot, but it didn't fly. I know you've been looking the other way. What I don't know is how much damage you've done. Not yet, at least. I will, though, and anything that's missing—you'll take the hit for it.”

“But I...”

“Wasn't the only one who was looking the other way?” Lee asked. He turned, picking up his pen and pad and shoving it at the other man. “I want names, dates, and any known contacts. I wouldn't leave anything out if I were you.”

Lee backed off, watching with his arms folded over his chest. The petty officer started writing. Kara pushed away from the wall, crossing the room to Lee's side. 

“Gods, you're good,” she whispered, and he frowned at her. “How long do you think he's going to take? Because that was frakking hot.”

She saw him fighting a smile. “Don't start, Kara.”

“You're the one that started it.”

“Go wait outside.”

* * *

“That kind of... ruins the evening, doesn't it?”

Lee grunted, kicking a bit of the debris out of the way as he moved through his mother's kitchen. She'd had one of her bad nights before she left for rehab, apparently, and her kitchen was a disaster again. He wasn't all that surprised, since she tended to get destructive when she was at her worst. At least he'd already told Kara about his mother's problem so this wasn't as bad as it could have been. He would hate to have her walk into this blind.

“I wasn't lying, you know,” Kara said. “You were good back there. Frakking amazing, even.”

Lee shook his head, taking off his uniform jacket and setting it on the counter before he went to the cabinet under the sink. Taking out a trash bag, he started to pick up the mess on the floor.

“You did this a lot, didn't you?”

“And you didn't?” Lee countered. Kara frowned at him, and he shrugged. “You said enough to make me think your mom was worse than mine, so I have to assume you were in a similar spot.”

“Not exactly,” Kara said. “I don't want to talk about it.”

“Neither do I,” Lee said as he continued to work. He wouldn't even do this if he didn't have to. They were going to need a place to eat, and he'd figured on making something, not going out. “I'm almost afraid to ask you to do it, but see if there's anything in the fridge that might be worth eating, will you? I don't know if she has anything here.”

“I don't need food,” Kara said. “Not right now, anyway.”

“We haven't eaten since breakfast,” Lee disagreed, going to the closet for the broom. “We should get something now.”

“Lee,” Kara said, coming over to him and putting a hand over his arm. “This is frakked up. You shouldn't have to do this. You did a good job today, and you deserve to celebrate.”

“I think you took care of that in the car.”

She grinned, still pleased with herself for that. “It was a start.”

“Kara—”

“We can order in, Lee,” she said, pulling him by the hand. “Leave the mess. It's not yours to clean up. Not this time.”

“I should—”

“Forget it,” she insisted. “Just be with me. Tomorrow my leave is up, and I don't want to waste any of the time we have left on someone else, not even your mother. I know I kind of owe her because she popped out one hell of a son, but I'm not cleaning her house, and I'm not letting you do it, either.”

He smiled at her. Gods, he was in trouble. What the frak was he going to do when she left?


	7. Day Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara's last day of leave is full of threats and promises.

* * *

“You are going to be late.”

“You're leaving today,” Lee countered, reaching up to touch her face, running his fingers across her skin. He would like to remember this, every little piece of it, of her. He hadn't thought this could—would—happen. He had a way of coping with his life after the crash, and it worked until the day he met her. She'd undone everything he had in place with one damned smirk. He'd tried to resist her, and maybe he would have held out if she hadn't come here, but he'd been weak enough before, and now it was done. His walls were gone—she knew things he'd never told anyone—and she had a part of him in ways he couldn't explain.

“You want me to stay?”

“Not here,” Lee said, looking around at his old bedroom with a grimace. “I've never really liked this place. Dad bought it for us not long before the divorce, and I think she remembered that a little too much most of the time.”

“You know, none of those newsfeeds about you mentioned your parents were divorced.”

“That wasn't good for sales, I suppose,” Lee said, shaking his head. “I don't know that it matters. We were never a family, not even when I was very little. I remember fights and Dad always being gone. Then her drinking. That's it.”

Kara shifted in his arms. “How bad?”

“What does that matter? I don't want to talk about that.”

She ran her fingers across his scar. “You are a good man in spite of that. Of them. Her.”

“You think you're not a good person because of what your mother did to you?” Lee demanded. “That's ridiculous. The malfunction is with her, not with you. I happen to think you're close to frakking perfect.”

“Me? You're frakking nuts, Adama.”

“I am,” he agreed, biting back on the urge to tell her that he loved her. He didn't know how he'd almost slipped like that, but he wasn't going to be _that_ kind of stupid. “I think after yesterday I have a bit of wiggle room, but not much, so we should get going.”

“Right now?”

“No,” he said, moving in for a kiss. “Not yet.”

* * *

“I'm supposed to tell you that you did excellent work yesterday.”

Kara almost snorted. That sounded like it hurt to say. The major did not want to give Lee any praise. She tried not to laugh. This was too funny. The look on his face. She loved it. And Lee, of course, was perfectly capable of acting like he didn't notice at all.

“Thank you, sir, but I was only doing my job,” Lee said, keeping his voice polite. “The conclusion there was rather obvious.”

Kara didn't think the major would have been able to see it or break the guy the way Lee had, and neither did the major. That much she could see on his face. “You shouldn't dismiss your own abilities, Captain. You are known to be one of our best.”

Lee frowned, mouth opening a little with surprise. “Sir?”

“You know what I mean,” Boyd went on. “You are well-known, even among the civilians. Part of that is because of your accident. It was well-publicized, as was your recovery. Your transfer made almost as many headlines. That makes you in some sense the public face of FLAC.”

“Me?” Lee snorted. “I don't think so. I haven't been here half as long as most of the officers, and Winspear is the living legend. There isn't anyone who wants to face him in a courtroom, and since he is in charge here, he's the face of the corps.”

“No one wants to see it represented by an old man, no matter how respected he is. They want someone young, someone up and coming. You were a name before your crash thanks to your father. Adama is a household name, and that's what they want to use.”

“Have I been assigned to do some kind of recruitment tour? Because I know I told Winspear that was one thing I would never do, and my position on that has not changed. I don't do speeches, and I don't do fleet poster boy. I never have, and I never will.”

Kara leaned back against the wall. Gods, he should. He'd double or triple enlistments based on how he looked in his uniform alone. They didn't need some model, and the best part of it was that Lee did exactly what he'd be recruiting for—served the fleet with frakking honor, not that they deserved it.

“Nevertheless, you are face everyone knows. You have a reputation. You're harsh, but you're fair. You get results. Uphold the law. You're everything they want in a FLAC officer.”

Lee grimaced. “I think you're exaggerating, and I can't imagine why you would want to—”

“However, you do have a problem,” Boyd said. “It's interesting to me that you, of all people, would be so careless in your association.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You _are_ aware of Lieutenant Thrace's record, aren't you?”

Kara stiffened. The frak did her record have to do with this, any of this?

“With all due respect, sir, Lieutenant Thrace has nothing to do with my career or whatever it is you seem determined to see me as.”

“You are an asset to FLAC. I would hate to see that ruined by your continued association with a screw up who is one disciplinary action from being kicked out of the fleet.” The major shook his head, pretending to be disappointed. “You have a reputation to uphold.”

“I'll take it under consideration,” Lee said, voice tight. “Thank you, sir.”

Boyd started to walk away, and Lee was on the move a second later, putting himself between her and the major.

“I'll show him a screw up—”

“Don't,” Lee said, trying to calm her down in his hold. “Don't do it, Kara, it's what he wants. He wants you to lose your temper. To hit him. To give him any excuse to throw you out of the fleet. You can't give him it.”

She grimaced. “This is crap.”

“No, it's worse than that. Come with me.”

* * *

“What the frak are we doing, Lee? Where are we?”

“We needed to talk privately,” Lee said, leaning against the wall. He closed his eyes, shaking his head as he did. He tugged on his uniform, letting out a curse. “Frak. I knew they'd pull something, but I was hoping that it would take longer.”

“What are you talking about?”

Lee turned to her, putting his hands on her arms. “Kara, that was a warning. It sounded like him being a jerk, and he was, but it's not as cut and dry as that. Boyd must be involved in this somehow. In the cover up.”

“Are you frakking kidding me?”

Lee shook his head. “That was the same kind of way they phrased other warnings in the past. He made it clear what they wanted without directly threatening you, but the point is the same. If I see you again, if I so much as talk on the phone with you again, they'll go after you. Or me. There will be consequences.”

“Frak that,” she said, reaching up to take hold of his face. “Look at me. They don't get to frakking tell you who you can see and who you can't. They can't frakking do this. We are not letting them do it. Frak that. Frak them. I won't. I'm not giving you up.”

Lee frowned. “I don't—”

“You are _mine,”_ Kara insisted. “I fight for what's mine, and that's you. I won't let them take that from me. You are not going to let them do this. Threatening your family because of the guidance system, that's one thing, but your personal life? Frak that. They don't get to decide who you see and who you don't.”

Lee leaned his head against hers. “I won't tell you that I don't want you because that would be a lie. I won't tell you that it doesn't make me sick to think of going along with them again, but Kara—I know them. I know that it's not as simple as saying 'frak that.' If we do this, someone will pay a price. I don't know what it will be or who will pay it, but it will come. Fast and hard, and we'll hate ourselves for it later.”

“Lee, you are the only thing in my life that means a frakking thing,” she muttered, shaking her head. “No. They don't get to do this. I don't care what they do. I'm not staying away from you. I have to go back. My leave is up, but I'm not going to end it just because I have to go back. I haven't seen what your experience with phone sex is like, but I think you'll be just as good at it as you are the rest of it.”

“Gods, you're impossible. Don't you understand that—”

“That I'm not giving up, that I won't stop fighting them, and that I want you? Understand that, Lee, because until you do, we're not leaving here.”

“Don't start. We're not going to frak here just to spite them,” Lee said. He pulled away from her, trying to force himself to be the stronger of the two of them. “Boyd delivered his ultimatum, but as long as you get on your flight, you'll be fine.”

“That's hours from now. I picked the last possible one on purpose.”

He sighed. “You should move it up and go as soon as possible.”

“No.”

“We will both regret this.”

“Not as much as we will regret letting them stop us,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. “And for the record, if we were going to frak to spite them, we'd use your office.”

“You're insane. Beyond insane.”

“I have to leave in a few hours. I want to use every last minute of them to frak you senseless. Here. Your office. Your car. Your apartment. I don't care where. I just want to be with you.”

He was a frakking idiot for going along with this, but he didn't want to let her go. He wanted to keep her forever, and he couldn't convince himself it was worth losing even a minute of the time they had left. If he got her on her flight, that was when it could end. He'd cut off contact once she was gone.

“Let's go.”

* * *

“You're not going to stop talking to me once I get on that Raptor, are you?”

Lee frowned, and Kara knew he'd been thinking about it. That damned noble streak of his was always getting in the way. She shook her head. She wasn't about to let this happen. He didn't get to give up on them, even to save her.

“You know what I want. If you don't call me, I'll just have to come right back here.”

Lee winced. “Kara—”

“I know you want me safe, but safe means nothing if I can't have you. You were frakking miserable before, and you can't actually want to go back to that. Don't do that to yourself.” She put her hands on his shoulders. “You'd be the first I considered worth trying phone sex with, so...”

He rolled his eyes. “It can't all be about sex. There is no good reason to risk lives and everything else for that. We can't justify it.”

“So, what, if there were feelings, you could?”

He swallowed. She almost choked. Frak. He would change his mind if she admitted to feeling something. Oh, gods. She wanted to do it, but she couldn't. She felt something, frak if she knew what, but she wasn't going to blurt out that she loved him. She couldn't.

“I want you,” she said. “And not just for sex. Is that enough?”

“Damn it,” he muttered, and she knew it was.


End file.
